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Homing Pigeon

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Homing Pigeon This blog/page may contain affiliate links. “We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.” Just call me homing pigeon. Saturday after Saturday, I end up heading for the salvage store. You’d think it were my “home coop”! Today I didn’t see tuna fish; but I stocked up on canned chicken. I found hazelnut-chocolate spread; 13 oz jars for 99¢ apiece! That’s quite a rare find; and I grabbed two of them while I had the chance. Yes, I know — that stuff is on my dietary “naughty” list; but I don’t have to eat it a cupful at a time. I’m running low on olive oil; and when I spied a bottle of it, I took it. Brown rice got added to my cart, too. When the pandemic first started, rice of any type seemed in short supply; so when I find it, I get it. Never mind that I might already have five pounds of it at home! And, needless to say, I raided the grab-bag bins. Those bins are the best part of the salvage store; and I love it when I find items in those bins that have their original price stickers still on them. Today I found four Fit Crunch bars; normally $3.49 apiece. The savings on those bars alone paid for the entire $3.00 grab bag several times over! It’s no wonder I’m such a homing pigeon when it comes to that store. The sky looked rather threatening, so I packed along the poncho; but I felt only a few drops of rain. This trip I didn’t use the trailer. It comes to my rescue when I have a big load; but today I didn’t take along the cooler. Before long, however, I’ll need it if I plan to get stuff such as guacamole. Now I can start planning tomorrow’s ride food. A Fit Crunch bar is sure to appear on the menu!  

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Rolling Along

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Old Man River isn\’t the only thing that\’s rolling along. This foam roller lets you get a deep-tissue massage without having to leave home; very handy in these days of COVID-19! Designed to mimic the action of a therapist\’s hands, and weighs only one pound; easy to carry along if you do leave home! Comes with a 4K ebook of instructions. For a home-spa experience, maybe follow up your self-massage with an epsom salt bath.

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Indecisive

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The weather seemed quite indecisive this morning. It brought up those FAQs: will it rain, or not? How should I dress; and how dense is the fog? Was it \”warm\” or \”cool\”? At 5 am today, it was 72 degrees. That\’s approaching the temperature where I can skip the leg warmers; but it was still dark, and I knew it was likely to be foggy. Riding in the fog and dark can be chilling; so I wore leg warmers. I also wore my jacket, and a lightweight skull cap. For a change there was almost no wind; and I made several efforts at unclimbing. I got almost too warm! I think the lack of wind had a lot to do with it. So now I\’ll be indecisive for a while about how to dress for a ride. On Sunday long rides, I\’ll have the Camel-Bak, and if I start to overheat I can stash some stuff into the Camel-Bak\’s pockets; but on weekday morning rides I don\’t have that luxury. Is it better to get a bit too warm, than to ride for miles while getting chilled? I usually opt for the former; and soon all my rides will be just plain hot, anyway! I\’m feeling a bit indecisive about this coming Sunday: 50% chance of T-storms. Maybe that\’s because I\’m tired right now, after working all day. It would have been even harder getting through the afternoon if I hadn\’t ridden out to get a soda at lunch time. I\’m certainly not indecisive about how to continue with my eating plan. My A1c is now out of the prediabetes range; and I want to keep it there! The same goes for my \”good cholesterol\”. The work involved in meal planning and cooking has been worth it!

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Cholesterol

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Cholesterol is one of those things that has a bad reputation. Limit your dietary intake! Watch out for eggs! Beware of cheese and butter! Or at any rate, that\’s what I always heard in my younger years. When I was with the nutritionist day before yesterday, we got onto that subject; and she says that the rules have changed. A bigger problem than dietary cholesterol itself is saturated fat. I don\’t eat much meat or poultry; and I don\’t have hot dogs and/or bologna every week. I\’ve cut way back on snacks that might be high in saturated fats and trans fats; and I work to limit cheese to a few ounces per week. So why is my cholesterol level high? Thus far my dietary efforts have been aimed at calorie control and curbing the carbs. It helped, too: my A1c level was 6.2; and now it\’s 5.6. That\’s still top-of-normal, though, so my work isn\’t over yet! In fact, I don\’t think it ever will be. I\’ve begun to examine the labels on my ride foods for fat and cholesterol content. Take, for example, Fit Crunch bars. The Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough variety does, in fact, contain 16 g of total fat per 3.1 oz/88 g bar; and half of it is saturated fat. And the bar has 30 mg of cholesterol. I avoid using those bars as casual snacks as much as possible; and when I\’m on a long ride, I need the energy. But do my long rides really burn off all that fat? Should I change what I use for ride food? I see that my diet needs some further adjustment. I don\’t want to have to go on statins any more than I want to take diabetes medications!

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Dreary

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“Once upon a midnight dreary…” I don\’t know about midnight; but this morning sure was dreary. It was chilly and rainy. On and off there was thunder; and I decided not to go out on the road bike. I had fasting blood work scheduled for 8:30 am, so I couldn\’t have anything to eat; and who wants to bonk? I didn’t ride to my appointment, either. It’s only a short distance, a mile or even a bit less; but if the streets were going to flood, I didn’t want to have to take the bicycle through deep water. It got wet enough yesterday. So I walked. Luckily it wasn’t raining hard, but it was dreary all the same: a gray morning, and too cool for shorts. Afterwards I walked to work; and that was something of a hassle. I was trying to hold onto my water bottle and umbrella while chowing down the bologna sandwich that I had brought with me. I was getting too hungry to wait until I got to work to eat it. Surprisingly, by about 10 am the sun was coming out. It was still at least partly sunny when I went on lunch break around 11:30; but I didn’t trust it. Rain was still very much possible; and in fact we\’re still under flash flood watch. After I got home this evening, I discovered that we\’ll be under a wind advisory for much of tomorrow. It doesn\’t go into effect until 9 am; so maybe I\’ll be able to make a trip to the supermarket. It looks like they don\’t expect rain, but it will still be cloudy; so it will be a rather dreary ride. But temperatures in the 70s, and at 5 am! Summer is a\’coming!

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Adjustment

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Adjustment to saddle height; and adjustment to cleat position. Adjustments are part and parcel of everyday life; and sometimes the diet needs to be tweaked, too. This morning I had a session with the nutritionist. I suspected that something was awry with my eating plan, because I always seemed to be getting hungry. I thought I might need more calories; or more carbs; or perhaps both! And both it seems to be. In brief, the nutritionist recommends that I bump up the calorie count by about 200 per day; and increase carb intake to about 235-240 grams per day. The nutritionist also said to be sure I get in some good, lean protein with supper: whole grains, legumes, and such. She mentioned that physical activity can raise A1c levels. Intense physical effort draws on the body’s glycogen stores, causing blood glucose to rise. That’s why athletes who have diabetes must take special care with monitoring their blood glucose before, during, and after exercise; and adjust food intake accordingly. It all sounds like a big job; and gives me a lot of respect for, say, the members of Team Novo Nordisk. Now for some adjustment to my riding routing. Bad weather has set in; and we’re due for a lot of it in the next few days! The nutritionist also said to be sure I get in some good, lean protein w/ supper. This can be whole grain; or legumes; or some tuna [link] or chicken. I asked about tuna and mercury [link]; and the nutritionist says I’d have to eat lots of tuna every day, long-term for that to be a concern. Now for some adjustment to my cycling! Bad weather has set in; and we’re due for a lot of it in the next few days.

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Adagio Reprise

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Today was an adagio reprise. I planned to do a short, easy ride with the road bike; and then ride the hybrid to work. This plan was especially important as bad weather is expected to set in sometime tomorrow; and for several days heavy rain and even T-storms are likely. In fact, we\’re under flash flood watch beginning at 8:00 am tomorrow. My morning at home turned out to be quite leisurely. I guess I need an adagio reprise now and then! I was very sleepy; got up a bit too late; and saw that, by the time I got out there with the road bike, it would be nearly time to be back home! So I decided to skip it. I combined the pre-ride snack with breakfast — can you believe I ate bologna? — and took my time packing the bike trunk and a pannier for the ride to work. Why the pannier? For one thing, it was a bit too cool for shorts this morning; but I knew I\’d want shorts by the time I left work. Even though rain wasn\’t expected today, I packed along the poncho. It was cloudy when I left for work, and I didn\’t trust it not to rain! A pair of slacks and the poncho take up a lot of room in the trunk; and I wanted to hit the drug store after work to stock up on sodas. There\’s absolutely no way I could have fit them into the trunk along with that other stuff! I wanted a few Power Crunch bars; but the store was out of them. I spied a new product: Vital Proteins Collagen Bar, and got one to try. In my estimation, it falls somewhere between Fit Crunch and Quest. Picking up the Tempo Now that it\’s already 6:25 pm, the adagio reprise must be over; and I can tell you, an adagio reprise is never long enough! I\’ve got to be picking up the tempo: prep tomorrow\’s lunch; clean up the kitchen; and do my off-bike exercises. I\’ve been terribly slack about them for months; and I don\’t need to lose the conditioning that took so long to develop! Tomorrow I see the nutritionist. I was having a lot of trouble with getting hungry too often, so something about my eating pattern is probably off-kilter. Maybe I need a few more calories than I\’ve been getting; or could I actually need more carbs? I\’ll find out. I just hope it\’s not pouring when it\’s time to go to my appointment!

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Still Plodding

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I\’m still plodding along. If anything, today\’s ride was slower than last Sunday\’s! This past week I missed two days\’ riding; and then I had the after-effects of the second dose of COVID vaccine. Today I still didn\’t feel like doing much; so I didn\’t push things. Well, not pace-wise; I did put in a little over 30 miles. Unfortunately my not pushing things happens too often. If I really want to improve my pace, I need to push myself harder and more often. So many days I feel sort of tired, and that means frequent \”sorta hard\” rides. Mediocre training leads to mediocre performance. I\’m not training for an event, which means I don\’t have much incentive to train hard. Even if I were working up to, say, Tour de Cure, I probably wouldn\’t be doing much better. History repeats itself, as they say. Today at least seems a bit more Spring-like. It was about the same temperature as yesterday, but the clouds were less dense; and the sun actually came out during my ride. Of course I had a headwind on the way home, and as a result I did quite a lot of low-gear spinning. But I wonder: do I need to eat more during my long rides? Would that help me to ride a bit faster? Today my Garmin showed post-ride that I had burned 885 calories; and I ate 736 calories\’ worth of bars and GU-Gels. That\’s a calorie deficit of 149; and I don\’t think it\’s enough of a deficit to cause real problems. I certainly didn\’t feel bonkish! Monday, as a rule, is off-bikes day; but it looks like bad weather will be moving in by Tuesday. So I think I\’ll do a bit of a ride tomorrow, even if I\’m still plodding.

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\’Tis Spring?

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\’Tis SPRING? It sure doesn\’t feel like it! Last Saturday, it was about ten degrees warmer than it was this morning. Today it\’s chilly and overcast; and that gloomy gray doesn\’t look much like Spring, either. But at least it wasn\’t raining, and I hitched up the trailer for the trek to the salvage store. This time it was really worth it. I found canned chicken, 99¢ for a 5 oz can; and I stocked up on chicken. It\’s combination white and dark meat, and not the all white meat that I prefer; but hey! It\’s chicken. For ages it seemed that the salvage store rarely had canned green beans; but today I found them. They finally had hummus again, too. Naturally I hit the grab-bag bins. This time I found only one Fit Crunch; but I enearthed two XL Bars. I like being able to get packs of M&Ms there. I have to watch the carbs, especially stuff like candy; and with M&Ms I can eat just a few pieces at a time. The same goes for candy bars that are easily broken into sections; or, if the temptation is too great, I can eat one bite and toss the rest! At those cheap prices, I don\’t have to feel too guilty about throwing the stuff away. Writing about food was making me hungry; and of course there was the ride to and from the store to whet my appetite. I ate some pilaf for lunch; and then I had to buckle down and get to work on my taxes. That time of year always comes much too quickly! At least I\’m not too tempted to cavort around outdoors right now. \’Tis Spring? As I already said, it doesn\’t feel like it.

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$10 a Day

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$10 a Day is one former pro\’s story of how he bought his first bicycle, just so he could get places; and his rise to the pro ranks. I first encountered this book through Google searches about becoming a pro cyclist. Sure, I knew I was much too old to be entertaining any notions about turning pro; but I was curious. First I read the excerpts from $10 a Day that were online. I thought they were interesting; and eventually I got the book from a library so I could read the whole thing. It\’s been a few years, so my memory is now hazy; but $10 a Day shows that pro cycling is not all glamor and glory. For instance, I believe the book mentions a Summer spent in a stink-bug infested house where the author\’s team was training. Not for me, thank you! I think I\’ll stick with being an amateur. So what if I still look like a rookie? And, if you\’re on a pro cycling team, do you get to choose what you\’ll eat on the bike? Maybe; but as an amateur I have complete freedom. I can plan for Fit Crunch bars, RXBars, whatever. $10 a Day is available in both print and kindle versions.

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